Recruit a Friend Active Until Level 85
It looks like the RAF update will be increasing the maximum level that it provides extra experience and levels from 80 to 85! Keep in mind this works for currently active RAF accounts, but no return date for the program has been announced yet.

Connected Realms Update

Originally Posted by Blizzard
(Blue Tracker / Official Forums)

As previously announced, we’ve been working toward connecting realms to increase the number of players on low-population realms, and since then have completed several connections. As a part of our ongoing communication, we wanted to provide you with an update that contains a list of completed realm connections, currently planned connections, and any additional future plans in one convenient location.

*Please note this list does not encompass all potential future connections. Please check back for further updates.

Next Realm Connections

Monday, November 4
We will be connecting the realms listed below on Monday, November 4th during a scheduled maintenance beginning at 6 a.m. PST through approximately 11:00 a.m. PST. Once maintenance is finished, these realm connections will be complete.

Haomarush and Detheroc/Dethecus/Blackwing Lair

Stonemaul and Bloodscalp/Maiev/Boulderfist/Dunemaul

Daggerspine and Aegwynn/Hakkar

Tortheldrin and Frostmane

Dentarg and Whisperwind

Future Connections
We currently anticipate two additional batches of realm connections as indicated below. We do not currently have a date for these connections, but will provide further updates when we can.

​Batch 1

Scilla and Ursin

Undermine and Anvilmar

Malorne and Firetree/Rivendare/Drak'Tharon

Quel'dorei and Sen'jin

Gul'dan and Skullcrusher

Echo Isles and Draenor

Fizzcrank and Aggramar

Batch 2

Lethon and Detheroc/Dethecus/Blackwing Lair/Haomarush

Smolderthorn and Chromaggus/Garithos/Anub'arak

Gorgonnash and Warsong

Winterhoof and Kilrogg

Lightning's Blade and Burning Blade

Cairne and Perenolde

Plans for these connections may change at any time, but we’ll provide additional updates on specific dates for future connections here as we can. Please note that as a part of the connection process realm times may change to match each other.

For more information on Connected Realms, please read the preview blog post here.

Ability Balance in PvP and PvE

Originally Posted by Blizzard
(Blue Tracker / Official Forums)

PvP is an intrinsic part of World of Warcraft. Just the fact that players have to choose one of two factions that are at war with one another is proof enough of that.

Nevertheless, if you follow WoW since the very beginning, you can see the evolution that PvP went through until now.
Initially, there wasn’t even any instanced PvP content at all. Battlegrounds were introduced a few months after the game was launched and Arenas only came with the first expansion.

Meanwhile you had a lot of PvE content being pushed out, new raids, new dungeons, new items, new quests… but this is beside the point, it’s not fair to compare the amount of PvE to PvP content, they’re two completely different beasts.

PvE players will never be happy if we let content stagnate, that’s just the nature of PvE Content. It needs constant and regular updates. Players also expect to progress, and it’s even more complex than that, because they also expect content to remain challenging. (Players’ experience rises, and the new content’s difficulty has to match it)

PvP players on the other hand are much more likely to be happy with less content updates and less changes, as they tend to focus on balance and gameplay mechanics.

With this in mind and given that there are many more players interested on the PvE than the on the PvP side of WoW, I think it comes as no surprise that PvE uses a lot more resources than PvP does.

Things can get even more complicated when you start to look at what drives players and what their motivations are, for example, item upgrades and character power progression are concepts that pose a challenge to PvP balance, but whether you like it or not, it became one of the main drives for a lot of PvP players, so PvE and PvP are actually tangled with each other on many aspects.

You can try to make a distinction and say that those are actually “PvE players” that enjoy PvP as a way to progress their characters, but does that really matter? Maybe it does, but the fact is, there are more players interested into PvP than the “hardcore” PvP crowd.
WoW is a game where PvE and PvP are supposed to be mixed, the open world is the best example of that, it’s neither exclusively PvE nor PvP, it’s both at the same time. That was the essence of PvP in WoW, to let players fight each other whenever they go face to face in the open world, and ideally that should feel seamless. I know it’s not really seamless at the moment (especially with the controversy about world-PvP), but maybe we can do something about that in the future.

The topic being discussed is a very hard problem to solve and I really appreciate your thoughts on it, I know how frustrating it can be when certain things occasionally affect PvP. I’ve always been into both arenas and raiding, and I try my best to have an unbiased view on the subject, I think a lot of you do too, and we just have to realize that there is no easy and perfect solution for this, what you can expect though is that we will do our very best (and your feedback really helps) to make both PvE and PvP coexist "peacefully" at the same time in the same game.

Blue Tweets

Originally Posted by Blizzard Entertainment

Character / ItemsI'm not sure about that. It's hard to see the effect of a single piece of gear on performance. Upgrade is upgrade.
Weapons and trinkets are easily felt IMO. Chests and helms less so. Bracers are hard to feel even though I know they contribute. (Source)My psych classes told me a diverse reward structure is what you should go for,if you want a game to be engaging
We have not been super successful there. WoW has lots of reward types but many players care far more for power than anything else. (Source)

How do you feel warforged worked out this tier combined with upgrades? made the 25 man race to easy and the 10man to hard.
Weapon or trinket drops probably had a much larger effect than the warforged ilevels. (Source)

Is there a specific reason why Bindings of Immerseus is giving Spirit instead of Hit and giving Non-Mages/Locks an advantage?
The Spirit was aimed at healers. There wasn't an elegant way to make it "non-hit Spirit." (Source)

Sorry, full regem-reenchant-reforge every upgrade is so tedious and expensive that I don't bother anymore. And I feel bad.
We agree that we have let post loot modification get a bit out of control. (Source)

I realize you probably won't respond to this but any news on this mount? I'm dying for it.
Patience. We haven't forgotten it. (Source)

OpenRaid Updated
Our friends over at OpenRaid have released some nice updates to their site today:

QuickRaid Revamp - Now you can create groups for things like Flex raids that are going on now rather than scheduling something in the future or relying on a crowded chat to find people. You can also quickly check experience and gear based on data from the armory without individually looking everyone up.

Repeatable Events - If you have a weekly run, such as ICC, Ulduar, or Elegon, you can now quickly copy this week's event and invite everyone that came, making for easier weekly runs.

Dual-Spec Roster Sign-Ups - You can now sign up for events as multiple specs

OpenRaid Addon - The addon has been updated to make it a quick copy and paste to invite your group, with more updates coming.

It does when you're on a low population server where meta gems cost 1k+ and normal gems 300-500G, if you get upgrades on a constant basis it stacks up fast (or if you're an altoholic).

1. Transfer, I did.
2. If you're too cheap to transfer take the time to level alts as profession mules. Everyone I know has alts with all professions maxed.
3. Farm. It's insanely easy to make money in this game to afford whatever ridiculous prices the AH is putting up.
4. Join a guild where you can make friends and they'll help you out with gems and enchants.

Or you can go with the 5th option which I posted a picture of earlier.

It does when you're on a low population server where meta gems cost 1k+ and normal gems 300-500G, if you get upgrades on a constant basis it stacks up fast (or if you're an altoholic).

For me, it is not only that, it is also remember to do it after a raid if what you need isn´t on the AH. One time I stuck a green gem in a slot just because the blue version wasn´t available. A month later, I finally noticed I still had the green gem. Other times I just log off after a raid and forget completely the next time I log in. I don´t think we need to remove reforging or gems however, since they allow some customization. Enchanting would be the one I would look at since most of the time there is no choice or gameplay involved with it.

- - - Updated - - -

I will be so happy when OpenRaid finally kills off oqueue. oQueue is so useful and a needed part of the game now.. but wow, what a piece of crap it is. Hopefully soon there will be another alternative for heroic scenarios and RBGs.

I will be so happy when OpenRaid finally kills off oqueue. oQueue is so useful and a needed part of the game now.. but wow, what a piece of crap it is. Hopefully soon there will be another alternative for heroic scenarios and RBGs.

It actually seems like the reverse will happen, though. OpenRaid has been around for so long (I was using it back in Cata), and has always been for scheduled raids. That's its strong point. The chatroom capability had the added benefit of ad-hoc groups, but few really tended to use it in that method.

oQueue on the other hand, is best for ad-hoc groups and raids. I could create a post, and within minutes form a group... whereas advertising in the OpenRaid chatroom for same group I'd wait for a very long time, and creating a post on the OpenRaid scheduler would limit me to the next 15 minute window (and if I didn't have a group by that time, I'd have to reschedule all over... or make the post for longer out and deal with over-booking.) Now if OpenRaid somehow absorbed that ad-hoc in-game scheduling function, then I could see them taking over.

Or if Blizz took the Looking For Group channel, re-enabled it for Global use across the entire server (like it used to be up until partway through BC), then also enabled it somehow for Global use across the entire region. But without the chat spam that would then result. In other words, implementing something looking very much like OQ inside the game core itself.

"Sorry, full regem-reenchant-reforge every upgrade is so tedious and expensive that I don't bother anymore. And I feel bad."

I actually agree completely. Especially with the mage class which has a completely different stat priority for each spec (fire wants crit, arcane wants mastery, frost wants haste). So if you want to change specs you have to replace pretty much every gem, enchant, and reforge you have, but this means replacing one piece of gear could completely wreck havoc on your stats such as hit cap and could cause you to need to replace 3-8 gems or more as well as enchants and reforges.

Also why does Aggramar get paired with a realm that has an even lower population V_V our realm is dead.

They are connecting more realms before they've even fixed what they did last week? They completely blew up Nesingwary and now a week later it still isn't fixed. I'm still missing my level 90s, guilds are still broken, I've had a ticket in for four days now and it has gone unanswered. I haven't been able to play for a week now. Worst of all they've swept the whole thing under the rug, guess they don't want bad press for Blizzcon. I think of myself as a very patient person but this whole fiasco has made me really angry.

Or you can go with the 5th option which I posted a picture of earlier.

Or you can go with the option of giving feedback on something you find not fun? He's right that customization options that were added in for the sake of being fun and giving options have just become extremely tedious over time, mostly because changing one piece of gear affects your rating caps and could mean having to re-gem / reforge literally every single piece of equipment just for a bracer upgrade. Only to do it again next week when you get a new belt.

"Avoiding danger is no safer in the long run than outright exposure...life is either a daring adventure or nothing."* * - Helen Keller